Chuck

Incidentally, there is a super-secret beta version of instamapper out now that has auto-start available. I found out about it last night and grabbed it and played with it – seemed to run OK but still crashes my BB when I exit the app – MoosTrax never crashed my BB at all… If you want to go looking for the 1.6 beta the link is almost at the end of the first page of the “BlackBerry Storm” thread in their forums.

Moostrax was nice since it sat almost hidden away in a menu and just \”ran.\” (I used it rarely since I only found out about it recently so I\’m foggy on the validity of this, though I\’m fairly certain.)

Cheers mate. Best with your endeavours.

For those looking for a new service, i can recommend http://www.instamapper.com. I would rank it second best after moostrax.

Check out this website: http://brentmeganowen.tripod.com/blackberry.htm for lots of GPS information for blackberry.

There is very big potential for the application if that is they way you want to take it.

Example

I work for a wireless cellular provider, and though not limited to just a single provider, people lose their blackberry’s all the time and that alone is stress enough for the customer after agreeing to a 3yr commitment to get their new BB Bold and having to pay upwards to 600 dollars for a new one.

Business’ and Corporations can see this application as an asset to their blackberry inventory if one be misplaced or stolen. BES has an option to push an application OTA to the device and have it automatically start.

Cellular providers if not host the application as a service, Track and Trace department, if implimented properly with proper agreements, could use tracking methods to find the location of a misplaced/stolen blackberry.

Your application can have significant use and benefit not only to the casual user, but business and corporations alike.

If not currently implimented to future proof your application and service, I personally find the following a great asset to all:

Application to automatically start when the device starts up, and or when cell tower connectivity has been established; much like windows live messenger for mobile. (application rules/permission need be set by user of course).

and if the webpage, after signing in could somehow be displayed in xml format or some other format where an offline program can aggregate the information. This option I think would benefit business and corporations as they could integrate it into their current solution. This option could offload your database storage concerns as track/location information would be stored locally. I suppose in a way, your site then, would be acting like a location proxy server.

That actually sounds half decent just thinking about it. Java is cross platform capable. So, you could develop a Java-based “thin” client for computer.

J2ME device Location Server Thin Client

That takes the load off your data base would it not? Since the thin client is requesting the location of the handheld, the Location Server issues a “where are you” to the application on the device, which the device sends a “i am here” reply, which gets forwarded to the thin client. The thin client then could be set to send the request in intervals (similar to the way the j2me software currently does) so that real-time tracking can be established. This means virtually NO space required for the server.

Alternatly, a person could log into the server and send the same request and see the results displayed, however, the information of that session is retained in the local cache and expires as any webpage would. Now you have a dual purpose tracking server and you benefit by not incurring space constraints, since the only requirment is login credentials and api key.